Impacts on Early Emotional Development

When viewing the UNICEF website, I chose to look into the area of East Asia and the Pacific.  I chose this area because it includes the Philippine Islands which not only happens to be the homeland of my grandparents, but also recently suffered the devastating effects of Typhoon Haiyan.

When reviewing the website, two specific regions of the area were front and center.  They include the Philippine islands and the country of Myanmar. 

The Philippine islands were hit by Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013 and are still recovering from the disaster. Some of the challenges that children in this area are facing include large-scale displacement, separation from families, damaged infrastructure (including schools), sickness and disease as well as malnutrition (http://www.unicef.org/).  These experiences will have an enormous impact on children’s emotional wellbeing and development as many of them are not even having their basic needs met.  According to Cooper, Masi and Vick (2009) negative early experiences have a tremendous impact on children’s emotional development and mental health.  Many children are suffering from the emotional and psychological impact of the crisis and psychosocial support services have been provided to them (http://www.unicef.org/).  Many steps are being taken to assist the children and families in the Philippines.  A back to school campaign has over 400,000 students back in a classroom; UNICEF and its partners are immunizing people against diseases and restoring access to clean water and sanitation (http://www.unicef.org/).    

Myanmar is another region in East Asia that is experiencing many hardships.  One of the hardships is extremely poor nutrition.  One of Myanmar’s biggest development challenges is the issue of malnutrition.  One third of all children in Myanmar less than 5 years old are stunted due to malnutrition; stunting is responsible for nearly 15% of child deaths each year in Myanmar. (http://www.unicef.org/).  Malnutrition in this are is due to poor hygiene practices, inadequate food and water supply, lack of basic health services and unsuitable feeding practices for young children (http://www.unicef.org/).  These challenges have a huge impact on children’s well being in this area as many of them are suffering and even dying due to malnutrition.  Due to this challenge, children are not developing and they are experiencing stunting.  Stunting is a form of growth failure and is a direct result of poor feeding practices and food quality and typically occurs before birth (http://www.unicef.org/).  Children who suffer from stunting appear to have typical proportions, but are much shorter than their peers who are well-fed (http://www.unicef.org/). 

            Reading information about the challenges faced by children in other areas of the world is always an eye opener for me.  While there are many challenges faced by children and families in the United States, those faced by children in third world nations such as Myanmar are simply shocking.  One challenge I did not go into detail about is Myanmar’s use of child soldiers.  While the government and other agencies are taking steps to release these children “back into civilian life”, they have still suffered a great deal of emotional and psychological trauma that many adults have a very difficult time coping with.  This has influenced me as an early childcare educator because it demonstrates a huge need for adults to be advocates for children’s rights.  I provides a passion and a need for one to do something, to help support those who do not have a voice.

Resources:

Trustees of Columbia University, The. (2010). National Center Center for Children

Children in PovertyPoverty (NCCP). Retrieved

from: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_882.html

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html    

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Levin and Kilbourne (2009) described the topic of sexualization of early childhood as distressing.  I agree with their description.  After reading some of the scenarios described at the beginning of the introduction, it was certainly worrying, but not surprising.  Both the media and popular culture encourage the sexualization of childhood, which ultimately is detrimental to the development of young children. 

            I have worked with ten year olds for nearly a decade.  The amount of mature content that these children were aware of originally shocked me, but it became the norm because it occurred year after year.  One particular story that stands out in my mind happened about five years ago.  I had a great group of boys in my classroom who absolutely loved to play soccer during recess.  They had great cooperation with one another and were developing their skills.  One day, I noticed that a group of girls were sitting on some recess equipment that the boys used as their goal post.  They would scream and laugh when the boys kicked the ball towards them.  A few days later, talk about “boyfriends” and “girlfriends” came up.   Eventually, the boys completely stopped playing the game that they loved during recess and spent their time with the group of girls, being completely inactive, just standing around.  Word eventually spread to the teachers that two of the students were holding hands and had plans to kiss.  We met together to discuss the issue and decided to tell the children that they weren’t allowed to have boyfriends and girlfriends in 5^th grade.  The boys went back to playing soccer and the girls stopped following them around, but the ten year olds were not children anymore, they were modeling adult behavior, which was completely inappropriate for their age. 

I have the privilege of not only being a teacher, but also a mother to two sweet, wonderful children.  One of which happens to be a seven year old girl.  A couple of years ago, she happened to watch an episode of Hanna Montana and became infatuated with the show and actress/singer.  At first, I didn’t think much of it as there were no curse words and the content wasn’t vulgar.  After watching a few episodes of it, I noticed that it included girls who were mean and catty toward one another as well as glamorized images of a young girl that was dressing like an adult, not to mention singing about issues much too mature for my five year old.  I encouraged my daughter to watch other television programs, which she did, but she still liked Miley Cyrus’ songs.  Miley Cyrus certainly is not someone I would like my child to idolize and I have learned to be more selective with the television shows, movies and artists that I allow her to listen to and watch.

Another issue arose recently about my daughter asking to get her ears pierced.  While I didn’t think it was a big deal, it was a big deal to my husband.  He didn’t feel that she should have to alter her body in the name of beauty.  Since I had my ears pierced as a child, I didn’t share his attitude, but I respected his feelings.  We agreed that when she is old enough to take care of them on her own and if she still wants to do it, we will support her.  Simple things such as make up or piercings didn’t register as issues of sexualization, but that is probably because I have become desensitized due to many years of media and pop culture advertisements.

This is clearly a problem for young children when their sense of self worth depends of society’s view of beauty and manliness.  One way to combat this is through the use of anti-bias education.  One of the values of anti-bias education is the understanding that everyone is unique, special, and beautiful because of their differences.  Being able to accept differences and show tolerance towards those who are unlike oneself will combat society’s ideals.  Also, providing materials in the classroom that are developmentally appropriate for children to play with and do not promote sex or violence would also eliminate some of young children’s exposure to this type of media.

From working with older children, I have seen this issue as a problem, however I did not realize, until I read the article that this has to also be discussed with young children.  On occasion, I will have a child in my classroom that seems much more immature than the other children and it will actually be refreshing to have a child who is indeed a child on every level.

Resources:

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

 

When experiencing any conflict in my personal life, it is difficult to separate it from my professional life.  The same would apply if I was the victim of stereotype and bias in my own life. 

One of the consequences that would be present for the children and families with whom I work would include lack of focus and commitment to the task at hand.  In my own experience, when I am dealing with conflict in my personal life, it is very difficult to be as focused and dedicated to my teaching as I am on a regular basis.  I am not fully thinking about the curriculum or the students, but instead thinking about finding a solution to the conflict.  I would anticipate that if I were experiencing an “-ism” in my own life, it would make it extremely difficult to be a productive and effective educator.  Dealing with an “-ism” in my own life would be emotionally trying on top of a career that already requires a great deal of energy.  Children and families would not be receiving the best care and education for their child during this time. 

A second consequence that would be present for the children and the families could be my own feelings of distrust or dislike for those who are targeting me.  While I’m not sure what my feelings would be about being the target of an “-ism”, I feel that one response would be to generalize the group that is targeting me and to be distrusting of members in that group.  This could apply to the children or families with whom I work if I would begin to behave differently around certain groups of children or families.  My actions could have devastating effects of the relationships I have built with the families and children.  If I showed a biased attitude toward the children or families with whom I worked, it would serve no one and only perpetuate the “-ism” that I would already be experiencing. 

After considering this, I feel extremely fortunate to have not been targeted by an “-ism”.  However, I am well aware that this is not the case for many people and I can only imagine how difficult this experience would be for an individual.  This further emphasizes the importance of anti-bias education in our society.